Lifting The Sanctions

Updated Sept. 13, 2000 12:06 a.m. ET

Y esterday the European Union lifted its diplomatic sanctions against Austria. It will be a disaster -- for Joerg Haider, for Austria's Freedom Party and for all of Europe's other intolerant, marginal parties, who can no longer use the sanctions to rally anti-EU sentiment.

But that doesn't mean it was an easy decision. French President Jacques Chirac, whose country now holds the EU's rotating presidency, had seemingly painted himself and other EU governments into a corner. By agreeing to remove the sanctions, they...